Last week I watched Assault on Precinct 13, and finally got around to watching The Conformist. Guess the 70s coin has more than one side, but there's style enough for both.
I could probably go on for pages about how goddamn awesome Assault on Precinct 13 is, but since I went in knowing that, I guess it's kind of cheating to pretend I went out and experienced something new in order to write a blog post about it.
So I'll just leave it as this. Napoleon Wilson? Awesome. And they gave him a hell of a romantic foil in Leigh, smoker's voice, tough as nails, blood that runs cool in a firefight. She's the original Tulip O'Hare. Lt. Bishop? I'm going to have to find a place to surreptitiously put in that name somewheres in my zombie comic.
So yeah, style to spare and probably one of the most shocking 'I can't believe that's actually in a movie' deaths in the history of mainstream film.
The Conformist is also all about style. A couple of dozen different lighting styles and locations, each meant to evoke a different mood. A protagonist that is a total enigma for most of it, leaving you speculating on how he really feels about the decisions that he is making in order to conform to a so-called normal life.
Plus it's so damn sad. No one is happy, and anyone who scrabbles to get themselves a little breathing room and not confirm is in for it. A really intense case study in how institutions like fascism can thrive because there are always enough people who, in their unhappiness, will do anything to have something to fight for and some authority figure who will approve of them for doing so.
Not that it's that simple and trite. It's far more personal than political. But hell of a fine looking movie on top of that.
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